


When the Lights Go Out

by Karasuno Volleygays (ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Adorable sassmasters, Awkward Conversations, But it honestly had it coming, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Masturbation, Mild Profanity, Only one squirrel was harmed in the making of this fic, Phone Sex, Squirrels are dumb like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-27
Updated: 2015-03-27
Packaged: 2018-03-19 22:16:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3626256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor/pseuds/Karasuno%20Volleygays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They met in the hot tub at training camp. Of course it was something dumb and cliché like that.</p><p>But every night after school, Akaashi Keiji finds himself checking his Skype list to see if a certain someone is online. Someone he can no longer imagine being left out of his daily routine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Lights Go Out

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for HQ Rarepair Week Day 2: Distance.

_Kino-his8  
Offline_

Akaashi frowns at his laptop when he sees that his usual partner in conversation is not online. Their interactions are tailored into his day like a well-fitting pair of jeans: comfortable, well-worn, and a relief after a long day.

Kinoshita never takes this long to come online. Not without letting him know.

So Akaashi waits and waits until, finally, his phone chimes with a new text message, which he nearly ignores because it is probably Bokuto asking how to navigate his trigonometry homework. His brows shoot up slightly when he sees that the text is from Kinoshita.

  
_From: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: Woops_  
_Message: Sorry I wasn’t online. A squirrel climbed into a power transformer and knocked out the power for my entire street. I’ll have to catch you tomorrow._  
 

Chuckling to himself, Akaashi imagines the look on Kinoshita’s face as he learns of this information and smiles softly. His newly-minted friend from Karasuno has an odd sense of humor that Akaashi can’t help but appreciate.

  
_To: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: (no subject)_  
_Message: No big deal. Want to Snapchat instead?_  
 

 _From: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: : (_  
_Message: Can’t. Low battery, and I have to save my phone for my alarm in case the power doesn’t come back on by morning.  
_

_To: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: : /_  
_Message: That sucks. I guess I’ll talk to you tomorrow night then. Good luck with your rogue squirrels.  
_

_From: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: (no subject)_  
_Message: lol you dork_  
 

Akaashi smiles as he closes his laptop and plugs his phone in to charge. He already blew through all his homework so he would have his allocated half-hour with Kinoshita guilt- and interruption-free. His options vary between wasting time on Tumblr until bedtime and just going to sleep a little early. Not wanting to fall down the rabbit hole of the former, he chooses to slide into bed and enjoy that extra bit of sleep.

If it ever comes.

Ten o’clock turns into eleven and then into midnight, and Akaashi can feel his limbs grow heavy with weariness while his brain keeps spinning like a top. He’s almost forgotten how much it helped his erratic sleeping patterns to spend the last bit of his day talking to his unlikely companion from Karasuno, but in the small hours of the morning when sleep evades him, it is all he can think about.

He wonders when he had become so dependent on someone he only knew in person for four days.

Around one-thirty, Akaashi closes his eyes to picture Kinoshita’s face. The lazy smile and sarcastic expression that are a product of an interesting set of eyebrows. Soft, round jawline that —

_Now where had that thought come from?_

Shaking off the odd descriptor, Akaashi squeezes his eyes shut and wills him brain to turn off and go to sleep. It isn’t until nearly three that he gives up on this endeavor and grabs his phone. He thumbs through an entire album’s worth of selfies Kinoshita has sent him in the past few months they’ve been acquainted. Some are serious, some are goofy, and some are startlingly candid.

But there is one Akaashi likes the most because Kinoshita isn’t the one who took it. His friend Narita had snapped a picture of Kinoshita while he was Skyping with Akaashi, and there was a small, secret smile in that profile that Akaashi never could have seen through the hazy quality of video chat. It makes his heart pound a little harder in his chest every time he sees it.

Akaashi sighs. He has a pretty good idea of how much sleep he is going to get, and the answer is pretty close to none.

It would be less of an imposition if this is the first time he’s had these thoughts, but nights when Akaashi finds himself awake and thinking heavily about Kinoshita are not rare and are, in fact, growing in frequency. He can probably text the other boy, who won’t care if he’s woken up, but that would be —

 _Ah, screw it._  


_To: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: (no subject)_  
_Message: I miss you._  
 

He doesn’t expect a reply anytime soon, yet one comes within seconds.

  
_From: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: (no subject)_  
_Message: Can’t sleep either?_  
 

 _To: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: (no subject)_  
_Message: Not really. I’ve been awake so long I see the pattern of my ceiling tiles when I blink. I’m going to be a walking corpse at school tomorrow. Maybe I could get Bokuto-san to hit me in the face with a ball so I can take a nap in the nurse’s office._  
 

Akaashi is only joking about the last part. Well, maybe. Bokuto-san doesn’t need to know he’s aiding and abetting the ploy, or else he might do the job too well. After all, his ace doesn’t do anything half-assed — except perhaps English homework. But with as badly as Akaashi’s eyes burn for sleep, he is almost willing to make the arrangements.

The airy chime of his text alert shakes him from his musings.

  
_From: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: (no subject)_  
_Message: I know it’s late, but can I call you?_  
 

 _To: Kinoshita Hisashi_  
_Subject: (no subject)_  
_Message: Yeah, sure._  


Akaashi picks up after the first ring. “Hey,” he murmurs, not caring how desperate he sounds just for a conversation with someone he basically only knows secondhand. But he doesn’t know how weird it is to miss his nightly chat with Kinoshita until he is up until stupid o’clock mapping constellations in the plaster on the ceiling, while he thinks of how well he actually does know Kinoshita and vice versa.

“Get any sleep at all?” Kinoshita manages to say through a yawn.

“Not really,” Akaashi replies truthfully. “I even went to bed early.”

“So did I. The power kicked back on sometime while I was sleeping, but I ended up waking up because of a dream.”

“Oh?” Akaashi feels unease seeping out of him as they exchange small talk. It is usually the only time in his day when someone doesn’t require anything of him except to be himself. He hopes that Kinoshita has a similar appreciation of it. “What kind of dream?”

Kinoshita doesn’t answer, and Akaashi begins to think he has sailed himself into uncomfortable waters. “If it makes you feel weird, you don’t have to say. I just thought that you might feel better about it if you get it out.”

There is a sigh on the other end of the line. “Yeah, you’re probably right. I just don’t wanna make things . . . you know.”

Akaashi doesn’t know, but he can definitely tell that Kinoshita is unsettled by whatever was in this dream. His grandmother always says that, in order to learn a new truth, an old one must be given in return. With that in mind, he says, “It’s okay. I’m not really fond of labels, but you’re basically my best friend, Hisashi. There isn’t anything I can think of that would make that untrue. Sure, whatever it is might be awkward, but I’ll get over it.”

He hears Kinoshita sniffle and his eyes bolt open. “Are you crying?” The thought of it makes Akaashi feel like someone has dropped an anvil on his chest. “Please, if it’s hurting you this much, let me help you.”

“It was about you,” Kinoshita all but whispers. “You and me.”

Wildly, Akaashi’s mind flits through dozens of possible scenarios that would involve the two of them which might make it uncomfortable to talk about, that can actually make carefree Kinoshita cry. One of them dies. Both of them die. Dismemberment. Zombie apocalypse. The internet being gone forever.

Oh. _Oh._

It hits him like a ton of bricks dipped in lead. “I think I get it,” Akaashi says as flatly as he can, though his heart is hammering in his chest. For a thought that has honestly never crossed his mind, the impact of thinking about it is almost immediate.

What would it like to be with Kinoshita? His joking, amicable, witty friend who he can’t even imagine going a day without talking to? He imagines Kinoshita would be attentive and playful, which doesn’t seem like a terrible thing. Sure, he’s a guy, but Akaashi doesn’t think he would really mind all that much. Not if he cares about said guy. And he does.

An icy feeling trickles into Akaashi’s thoughts. What if Kinoshita is repulsed by the idea? While Akaashi doubts that Kinoshita is against homosexuality, as they have discussed gay rights in the past and both of them believe it to be a positive thing, that doesn’t mean that he is looking for something with a man rather than a girl. Really, Akaashi isn’t sure if Kinoshita is looking for anything at all, either romantically or sexually.

“You’re being really quiet,” Kinoshita says, startling Akaashi. “Please say something.”

Before he embarrasses himself, Akaashi decides to clear the air. “Just so we’re on the same page, you _are_ saying you had a sex dream, right?”

“Um, yeah.”

Akaashi shrugs to the empty room. “Okay. Does it bother you?”

Kinoshita is silent for a while before he replies, “Not really. I just never —”

When Kinoshita fails to continue his train of thought, Akaashi urges, “Never what?”

“Never thought anything could come of it, so I just . . . swallowed it, you know.”

Akaashi can hear his blood rushing around in his head. Kinoshita just confessed to him, in not so many words. It isn’t Akaashi’s first confession, as his almost effeminate face and vice-captain role on the volleyball team have garnered a fair few boxes of homemade chocolates, but it is the first time someone he genuinely cares for has done it. Certainly not the person he has told more intimate things to than anyone.

It makes Akaashi feel stupid, trying to figure out what he’s supposed to say, but he knows he has to say something before Kinoshita hangs up and never talks to him again out of shame. He struggles to choose the right words so he doesn’t sound like he’s a creeper or, worse, disgusted.

“So, you don’t hate the idea?” Akaashi asks tentatively. “Being with me?”

He can hear Kinoshita gasp in surprise. “No, no, no! You don’t — I mean, I’ve thought about it before and I’d feel lucky to have someone like you, Keiji.”

I’d feel lucky to have someone like you.

“Oh, god, did I just say that out loud?” Kinoshita whines. There is a sound of skin slapping skin, and Akaashi is fairly certain Kinoshita just smacked himself on the forehead. “I am such a putz.”

Akaashi laughs, and something bubbles in his belly that he can’t describe but definitely enjoys. “No, that’s probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.” Sobering his tone, Akaashi adds, “Which probably means it’s the right time to tell you that the idea of _us_ is something I don’t mind at all. I like you. You like me. Nothing wrong with that.”

It’s Kinoshita’s turn to laugh. “This is the most fucking awkward conversation I’ve ever had, and I wish it could go on forever.”

As he considers it, Akaashi can’t help but agree. He chuckles along with Kinoshita until he is doubled over and wheezing, tears coming out of his eyes. “Alas, it’s not meant to be. If your wet dreams are anything like mine, you probably have something you need to take care of right about now.”

Akaashi blushes at his own words. They are far bolder than anything he has ever imagined himself saying. He’s sure there is some sort of Man Code that prohibits mentioning such things, but he hasn’t put much stock in such things before and doesn’t foresee starting.

He is surprised when Kinoshita replies, “Guilty as charged.”

Closing his eyes, Akaashi dredges up any and every memory he has about Kinoshita’s body. The other boy is on the short side for a wing spiker, but is solidly built. He remembers freckled shoulders and warm brown eyes that are cat-like and teasing. His face is constantly hanging onto a smile, and when Akaashi combines all of this together with the idea of his favorite person and that person being aroused, he isn’t entirely surprised when his body reacts in kind.

“That would make two of us, then,” Akaashi admits, cheeks red but not sorry to admit it.

When he hears a soft moan through the phone, Akaashi feels like his blood is made of needles. Experimentally, he tucks his hand into his pajama bottoms and palms his arousal. “Oh, fuck,” he hisses.

Kinoshita is breathing hard through the receiver. “Keiji, did you just . . .” A low hum turns into a growl. “Jesus.”

The idea that he made Kinoshita touch himself torches whatever is left of Akaashi’s hesitation. He strokes himself in long, uniform motion, carefully ghosting a thumbnail up the underside of his length. His eyes flicker back into his lids with pleasure and he moans softly.

There is a wet sound on Kinoshita’s end, but the noise that comes next is lewd and embarrassing and _hot_. Kinoshita mewls, and Akaashi is a goner. He doesn’t think he’s ever been so hard in his life.

Together, they gasp and moan and whine into their phones, taking the gift of pleasure offered by the other. Akaashi can scarcely form a thought, let alone figure out how he had ended up having phone sex with his long-distance friend, but merely hearing Kinoshita’s lust gives him more satisfaction than he could have imagined.

When Akaashi comes, he can’t stop the high-pitched moan he lets out. Kinoshita pants into the phone and follows with an almost pained grunt. Neither of them can draw a full breath, but a feeling of well-being blankets Akaashi, even as he wipes come off his hands and onto his T-shirt.

“Well,” Akaashi says first, not really sure what else there really is to say. “That was an interesting turn of events.” Kinoshita giggles at this, and Akaashi nearly melts into his bed.

“It was — wow,” Kinoshita says. Akaashi can almost see his smile through the phone. “Do you have any idea how sexy your voice is?”

Akaashi scoffs. “I can say with absolute certainty that the thought has never occurred to me.”

“Seriously,” Kinoshita says, his voice rough. “I probably could have come just listening to you. I actually had to try hard not to.”

Nearly choking on his own saliva, Akaashi finds himself coughing and fighting for air. When he can finally breathe. “I can’t believe you just said that out loud, Kinoshita. You pervert.”

“Hey, I’m not the one moaning like a porn star, Akaashi!”

“And just how much porn have you watched that you even know that, _Hisashi_?”

“Nothing that will get me off better than you did, Keiji.”

Warmth blossoms in his chest when Akaashi hears the earnestness in Kinoshita’s voice. He wants to say something sweet and romantic, but every word he knows that falls into either category turn to marbles in his mouth. So, he settles on the stupidest sentence that has ever left his mouth: “Thank the gods for that squirrel.”

“You are twisted.”

Soon, exhaustion takes over both of them and they agree to hang up in order to salvage at least a modicum of sleep on a school night.

Akaashi toys with the idea of slinking out of bed and changing his clothes, but his limbs are heavy and sated and he decides he can’t be bothered at the moment, even though he’ll hate himself for it in the morning.

He falls asleep with a contented smile and a burning desire to see what the next night’s Skype chat will turn up.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be short, fluffy, and sweet. I don't know what happened.


End file.
